Dana White shuts down rumors that UFC Saudi Arabia was postponed because the lineup wasn’t good enough: “That’s all bullshit”

Dana White has shut down rumors that UFC Saudi Arabia was postponed because the lineup wasn’t good enough.

The UFC was expected to host its first event in Saudi Arabia on March 2, 2024. However, on Monday it was reported by Ariel Helwani that the event was going to be postponed.

“I am being told via sources that the planned March 2nd UFC event in Saudi Arabia is being postponed and the target is June. I was told that the reason for the postponement is because, they just want, the powers that be in Saudi Arabia want a more entertaining fight card, they want a deeper fight card with bigger names on it, they weren’t too pleased with what was being offered. So, it is being at this point moved to later in the year, June,” Helwani said reported…

“Saudi Arabia was never going to accept a lesser card than what Abu Dhabi is getting or anyone else is getting. I always found it a little bit surprising that it was just being billed as Fight Night. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a pay-per-view.”

After Ariel Helwani’s report, UFC CEO Dana White spoke to Sportsnet’s Aaron Bronsteter and shut down the claims stating the promotion never even told Saudi Arabia about any fights that may happen on the card.

“Yes, we moved the card. I know there has been a lot of talk about that the card wasn’t good enough. We never even proposed a card to them, we didn’t tell Saudi Arabia about one fight. So, that’s all bullshit. Bullshit. We never even proposed a card to them. What we wanted to do, every time the UFC puts on an event, we want to blow the doors off the place,” White said. “We want people to be excited. It was our first fight ever in Saudi Arabia, and a couple of fights that we wanted to line up, they weren’t ready to go, so we pushed the card back because we are going to deliver. Never once, was one fight proposed to Saudi Arabia and they were like no this wasn’t good enough.”

According to Dana White, he says the rescheduled Saudi Arabia card will remain a Fight Night card and won’t have any championship fights on it. However, he says it will have some big-name fights on it that people will be excited for.